Charles backs National Trust as it suffers £200million loss
PRINCE Charles has backed the National Trust’s “swift and pragmatic response” to the pandemic, even though its decision to close sites is costing the charity £200million.
The Prince has written in support after the trust asked the Government for a bailout from a package aimed at environmental organisations, similar to that for business.
The money is part of a green recovery plan for Britain for when the
Richard Palmer
country emerges from lockdown. Britain’s biggest conservation charity, with an annual income of £634million and 5.6 million members, has furloughed 11,200 staff – 80 per cent of its workforce – on full pay. It closed all of its 500 historic properties, parks and gardens and other attractions. Bosses later extended the shutdown to its car parks and did an about-turn on an invitation to visitors to walk on its land.
In a foreword for a special edition of National Trust Magazine today to celebrate the organisation’s 125th anniversary, Charles threw his weight behind Tim Parker, the trust’s chairman, and his team’s reaction to the crisis.
The Duke of Cornwall, 71, said: “The global spread of coronavirus is challenging society in a way that we have not experienced for generations and as a direct impact it has, of course, necessitated the temporary closure of the National Trust’s properties, parks and gardens.
“Meanwhile, I wholeheartedly applaud Tim Parker and his fellow trustees for their swift and pragmatic response to the coronavirus pandemic, which cannot have been easy.”
Last weekend the trust’s director general, Hilary McGrady, revealed the Covid-19 outbreak meant the charity faced losing up to £200million this year, putting key projects at risk.
She said the drop in income had already forced it to halt work on cleaning rivers, preventing upland flooding, and improving soil. She also warned the trust’s plans to plant 20 million trees to help tackle climate change and create green spaces near towns and cities must not be allowed to suffer.
Powerful
Charles, who is celebrating 25 years as the trust’s president, picked up the theme in his piece for the magazine.
He wrote: “On top of this pandemic, we are also facing crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, both of which stem from our unwillingness to value nature properly and to recognise the limits set by the renewable boundaries of our planet.
“The National Trust is powerfully engaged in countering the effects of these crises.
“The plans for the next 10 years include 20 million more trees and developing green corridors that enhance biodiversity and are accessible from our towns and cities.
“This is particularly important because our work is not just about preservation and avoiding further losses.
“There are huge opportunities actively to restore and improve the natural environment that sustains, engages and delights us in equal measure.”
The trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter, and Hardwicke Rawnsley to help preserve for the nation places of beauty or historic interest.
The Prince wrote: “When our three founders established their new organisation in 1895 it would surely have seemed impossible to them, or indeed anyone else, that a membership of millions of people would one day own and support 250,000 hectares of farmland, 780 miles of coastline and more than 500 historic properties, together with glorious gardens and spectacular nature reserves.
“This remarkable outcome is due not just to their vision, but to their insistence that owning land and property on behalf of the nation was essential if it was to be saved for ever from the threat of development and loss of public access.
“We owe a huge debt of gratitude to those pioneers and to everyone whose support over the years has made the current situation a reality.
“I believe passionately that today’s challenges make the National Trust more important than ever.”